1993 Toyota Tercel 1.3 from North America

Summary:

Great value, high reliability, NOT a race car or luxury car

Faults:

$600 brake job.

Literally nothing else in almost 70K miles.

General Comments:

I love this car. It has been one of the best purchases I have ever made. I live in Chicago, and in the time I have owned the car, the temperature here has varied from -20F to 105F. This car has ALWAYS started within two seconds of turning the key.

This car has consistently gotten 34 miles per gallon. This is exactly what Toyota claimed it would do.

I paid less than $5000 for the car when it was two years old. Since that time, with the exception of the $600 brake job, I haven't spent a penny on anything other than normal maintenance (oil, filters, plugs, tires). According to Carfax, my car (looked up the VIN), was in a wreck and has "lots" of problems. What a joke. This has been the most reliable vehicle I've owned.

Many people will complain about the performance of this car. Performance, I'll grant, is weak, but I don't care. It gets me where I'm going. With the stick shift, this car still "performs" better than my old 2L Mustang.

Comfort is not the best, but it is not the worst either. I am 6' 0" and I do feel a little cramped sometimes. Again, though I have been in worse cars.

Bottom line: If money is a concern, this has got to be one of the best cars possible. Cheap price, high reliability, and great gas mileage add up to an unbeatable bargain. However, if you are taller than 6' 2", or are a speed freak, you should probably pay more money for something else.

The car let in a good deal of moisture. Things I left in the trunk got damp quickly. In wet weather, I had to drive with the windows slightly open, otherwise the car would fog up.

The lock on the gas cap was broken, so it never closed quite right. The lock on the driver's side door was broken too, so you could only open it from the inside.

General Comments:

My Tercel was very reliable. At 149,000 miles, it was mechanically in almost perfect shape, burned no oil, leaked nothing. It was incredibly cheap to run, too, it got about 40 miles to the gallon. This is especially amazing when you consider most of my drives were the kind of short drives around town that burn the most gas.

The shifter is kind of cool, a narrow stick with a ball. It is very easy to shift, I could do it with just two fingers easily.

The cabin is cramped, at least on the two-door (which is what I had). It's bigger than the Honda Civic hatchbacks I've seen, but it's noticeable cramped compared to a Camry, or my Mazda Protege. The seats aren't particularly comfortable, but I had seat covers in front, which makes them a lot better. The interior is all black, which turns into a furnace on hot days. I had to drive with my palms as I waited for the steering wheel to cool down.

I had the absolute basic model. Four speed, power nothing, not even a clock on the radio. It came with air bags and a tape player, which was something at least. It didn't even have power steering. On the road, that's no problem, since the car is so small and easy to maneuver, but it was hard starting up, backing out and parking, it took physical strength to steer. You usually needed both hands firmly on the wheel to turn, which can get in the way of, say, eating a cheeseburger. The cabin is noisy while you're driving.

It's easy to steer, it fits in any lane or parking space. But it's one of the slowest cars I've ever driven or been in. My Mazda Protege felt like a Camaro compared to the Tercel. I took it on an Interstate once; merging was terrifying, passing impossible. When I was going 65, I depressed the gas pedal as far as it would go and counted several seconds before the speedometer crept up to 70. When a strong gust of wind comes, it sometimes feels like the car is being pushed off the road; it takes muscle to keep it going straight on a windy day. This was especially harrowing on winding country roads in the Adirondacks. At least I had the manual; the automatic must be dangerously sluggish.

The seat belts were odd--a regular seat belt in the driver's seat, but separate lap and shoulder belts in the passenger seat. I'm told this was because there was no passenger side airbag, and the separate shoulder belt counted as a "passive restraint," like an airbag, under 1993 law.

Tercels are cheap to buy, cheap to run and absolutely dependable. I loved spending next to nothing on gas, and I'd probably still be driving mine if a half-blind old lady hadn't slammed into the car and totaled it. But they're not comfortable, fast or cool. If all you need is a car to drive around town, they're great. They'd be good for somebody in high school or college, or somebody who didn't have a lot of money and had to commute to work. But if you need anything more in a car, look elsewhere.

21st May 2009, 07:56

I recently bought a 93 Tercel with 341,000 miles on it (the engine had been rebuilt with 78,000 currently on it). Normally I would not have considered any car with that many miles. The thing is, I couldn't find anything wrong with it. Before agreeing to the purchase I called the local Toyota dealership since I knew someone that worked there. I learned that three of their mechanics owned older model Tercels as their daily commuter cars. They seem to have an unbeatable dependability record. I have to admit that in the short time I've had it, it's been great. This is a car you really can't go wrong with if you're looking for simplicity and reliability.

22nd Nov 2010, 13:51

I bought my Toyota Tercel new in 1993. It is a four speed manual, no power steering, but it does have air conditioning. I am still driving this car every day, and it just recently turned over 260,000 miles. I am hoping for 300,000 miles, and after that, 350,000.

This may be just an entry level car, but what it lacks in luxury, it definitely makes up in reliability. I hope when I do have to buy another car some day, it serves me as well as this one.